Cross Country Sends Pair of Freshmen to Seattle for NCAA West Regionals

Nov 05, 2012

Eastern’s Top Runners to face off with the best of the
best from the Western Region

True freshman David Thor and redshirt freshman
Berenice Penaloza of the Eastern Washington
University men’s and women’s cross country teams will
be competing at the NCAA West Regional Championships on Friday
(Nov. 9) in Seattle, Wash. The races will be held at Jefferson Golf
Course, with the women’s 6,000 meters starting at 12 p.m. and
the men’s 10,000 following at 1:15.

“As freshmen, this will be the largest race they have been
in this season with over 30 teams attending,” head coach
Chris Zeller said. “It will be a true learning experience for
them to see how they handle that size of a race and how they will
push through it.”

In their most recent action, Eastern’s men finished ninth
at the Big Sky Championships in Flagstaff, Ariz., while the women
finished 11th. Thor led the way for the men, finishing 25th with a
time of 26:35.5. Penaloza was the top runner for the women, placing
29th and covering the 5,000-meter course in 18:39.2.

Thor has finished first for the Eagle men in every race this
season and has also placed in the top 25 at each meet. One of
his top races of the season came in Seattle, when he placed 19th at
the Sundodger Invitational, crossing the line in 24:55.74.

“David had an interesting resume coming in as a seven-time
state champion from Kansas and he’s proved that those titles
were no fluke,” Zeller said. “He has shown great
potential for years to come and I think he will have another solid
performance this weekend.”

Penaloza has also been the top finisher for the Eastern women in
each race, placing in the top 20 in three different meets. In her
only 6,000-meter race this season, which was also in Seattle, she
ran a time of 23:10.22 to place 39th.

“Berenice was able to put some health issues behind her
and have a really solid summer prior to the season,” Zeller
said. “She’s been able to dig deep more and more each
race and just continue to be competitive and stay confident. I
expect more of the same from her at this meet.”

There are nine regional meets where the top two teams
automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships in Louisville,
Ky., on Nov. 17. After those 18 teams, 13 at-large teams are
selected based on how well they’ve competed against the
automatic qualifiers. For an individual to make it, they must be
one of the first four individual runners to place, and finish in
the top 25 overall in their region. The last Eagle to qualify for
nationals as an individual was Paul Limpf in 2008 – he
finished 11th overall and was the top individual in the region.

“I expect both of them to be contenders for those
individual spots in the coming years, so getting a feel for this
meet will be essential,” Zeller said.

After competing at 7,000-foot Flagstaff, Ariz., the fast, flat
and sea-level course in Seattle will be a welcome sign according to
Zeller, as it will allow the freshmen to abandon the conservative
mentality from the conference meet and be much more aggressive.

Overall, the main thing Zeller wants both runners to get out of
this meet is experience.

“I mainly want them to see what this meet is all about and
what the level of competition is like,” Zeller said.
“Nothing can really prepare you for that besides being there.
Getting that experience will get them prepared so that once
they’re each ready to do something big there it won’t
be their first time in that environment.”